Tag: Elizabeth II

As I suspected, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge turned up at the Queen’s garden party this afternoon alongside other members of the Royal Family. This the Queen’s second garden party of the season, but the first she attended in person. A third is scheduled for Thursday, with a fourth on Wednesday, May 29.

And so the day is finally here: the Chelsea Flower Show preview. Have you been on pins and needles? I know, so exhausting. While yesterday’s release of photos and video of the entire Cambridge family paying in the “Back to Nature” garden the Duchess co-designed may well prove the highlight of the entire endeavor, today had one big draw: the Queen.

Members of the Royal Family gathered today at St George’s Chapel, Windsor for the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston. The bride is the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, whose grandfather, Prince George, Duke of Kent, was a son of King George V. You can read more about the family here.

You’ll be forgiven for missing this, but another royal wedding is happening tomorrow. At St George’s Chapel Windsor. One day before the one-year anniversary of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. On the same day as the FA Cup Final. We’ve been here before…sort of.

The royal in question is Lady Gabriella (“Ella”) Windsor, a rather junior member of the family, and her bridegroom is a financier named Thomas Kingston.

The Royal Foundation, led by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, launched a new 24/7 textline to support people in crisis. The service, Give Us a Shout, was quietly rolled out earlier this year on a trial basis and has reportedly already served 60,000 people. It’s also based on volunteers, of which it has amassed 1,000, with William calling for another 3,000 in the video share by the organization this morning.

Twenty-four hours later after the birth of Baby Boy Sussex and the House of Windsor was back at it. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge today carried out an engagement in London (that I completely forgot about, tbh) to launch The King’s Cup Regatta, while the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Berlin and the Duke of Edinburgh made a rare appearance alongside the Queen.

On April 29th, the eight-year anniversary of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding, the Queen appointed Kate to the Royal Victorian Order. This honor is significant in that this is bestowed at the Queen’s discretion, without intercession or recommendation from Downing Street. This follows her introduction into the Royal Family Order last year, which was seen as a (slightly delayed) coup after seven years of service.

An allegedly frosty Easter, I should say. Per tradition, members of the British Royal Family convened at Windsor to attend an Easter service with the Queen. As such, the family tends to stay at Windsor Castle, walk to church as a group, line up for the Queen to arrive via car, attend the service, and then depart as a group to walk back to the Castle.

And also per tradition, the family is photographed while they are outside with people tending to enjoy watching them interact while they wait for the Queen.

Well! Two big events (unexpectedly) happened today – the Duchess of Cambridge carried out her first joint engagement with the Queen and she was named patron of the Foundling Museum before visiting this afternoon. The Queen and Kate have certainly made appearances together in the past (separate and apart from events featuring the entire family), but this was oddly enough their first engagement together without anyone else.

Happy Commonwealth Day. Last year we used this occasion to note the marked improvement from 2017’s celebration, which was marred by #skigate (a thing only I call it). But it’s just as remarkable to look back at last year and see how far we’ve come once again. Yes, the Cambridges still showed up, but while 2018 saw Kate pregnant with Prince Louis and Meghan still a royal fiancée, this year we have Kate fully back in action and a mother of three, and Meghan a duchess and about a month out from the birth of her first child. What can I say? I love a good annual event – the passage of time is so much easier to track.